This week, I’m going to talk about toxins. I have had a few ladies reach out wondering how to decrease their toxic burden. We are living in a world that we have never seen as a civilization before. We are seeing thousands of new chemicals in the last 70 – 100 years. And unfortunately, the United States is very lenient on what they allow companies to use in their products.
If you look at the literature, most of the European nations don’t allow over 2000 chemicals that we allow in the United States. We know these are toxic, but they get away with it by saying that the average daily dose that you’re getting is technically safe. So what they’re saying is, if you use this lotion this one time, at this dose, it’s safe. They don’t have to think about the fact that you use that lotion every day for years. Also, you have to consider other items we use every single day such as air fresheners, cleaning products, makeup, lipstick, and shampoo. All of that combined is too much of a toxic burden. We need to focus on decreasing our exposure because our bodies are not designed to handle all of these toxins that we’re now seeing at monumental levels. And because of that, we are seeing lifestyle diseases develop such as chronic fatigue, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. All of this was unheard of 100 years ago. Unfortunately, we have created this as a society, in particular, in the United States. It’s largely because of our environmental burden.
How to Decrease Your Daily Exposure
I want to talk about how we can decrease our daily exposure. All these toxins get into our system and bog down our liver, prevent mitochondria from being healthy and producing energy, damage our DNA so that it gets read incorrectly, and cause cells to go rogue and create cancer. There are so many reasons that we need to get these toxins out of our bodies. Not to mention that a lot of them are stored in our fat cells. So your body is actually protecting you when it doesn’t burn your fat for fuel. When it’s holding on to that stored fat, it’s doing it in an effort to keep those toxins out of your bloodstream and away from your major organs. So your fat is actually protecting you, but I’m sure you don’t want to hear that because you don’t want to be carrying extra fat. So if you don’t want to be carrying extra fat, you have to decrease your toxic burden, that’s just how it is.
Watch the video version of this blog post here.
Get Outside
You have to breathe fresh air and see sunlight. There is a detoxification process that happens when you go outside and breathe fresh air. Open your windows on a regular basis because everything inside of our homes and cars has toxicants that accumulate in the air and it becomes very concentrated. When we breathe it in it goes straight into our bloodstream the same way that you breathe in oxygen and it goes straight to your bloodstream. Your lungs are filled with millions of these capillary beds. There are these tiny little blood vessels that are ready to suck in the oxygen. All of that blood flow in your lungs sucks in all those toxicants as well.
Circulate the Air in Your Home
It’s really important to circulate the air in your house. Open the windows to get fresh air. In newer homes that have just been built, carpet being replaced, or new furniture I’m sure you have noticed a very toxic smell. It can release gases for a long time. Older houses or even newer houses sometimes can have mold that becomes too much of a toxic burden if you don’t have air circulating. Also, pay attention to old lead paint and wallpaper. Open your windows and don’t just use the air conditioner. If you do you’re actually recirculating those toxins and continuing to breathe them in.
Leave the Receipts at the Store
Don’t take the cash register receipts. I had to teach my kids this one when we went to Disney last week because everybody wanted to give us receipts. Those receipts are actually covered in Bisphenol A or also known as BPA. Those are toxins that get absorbed directly into your skin. If you are someone who works with receipts like it’s your job to hand people receipts, consider wearing gloves. Definitely don’t use alcohol sanitizer to wash your hands frequently and then grab the receipt because that actually increases the absorption of that toxin into your system.
I felt so bad for all of the store workers through COVID when I would see them putting alcohol sanitizer on their hands, grabbing the receipt, and handing it off. Try not to do that. Try your best to get an email receipt or handle it very minimally because those toxins go straight into your system and wreak havoc on your hormones.
Take Off Your Shoes
Leave your shoes at the door when you come home. There are actually a lot of toxins outside in your yard, lawn, driveway, and cement. They are covered in weed killers, lawn fertilizers, heavy metals from the dirt, and if you live where I live, in the snow and salt. These can all get transferred to the carpet and then get absorbed by us, especially small kids. So if you have kids who play on the floor, who are learning to walk or crawl, or your pets bring all of this stuff in, just be mindful of that. I personally don’t use pesticides on my lawn because I don’t want them anywhere near me. They seep in and they get into places that you don’t want them. So be mindful of that one.
Avoid Fragrances
Stop buying air fresheners and scented candles. If you need to use something like that because you want the smells in your house, use essential oils, those are clean. Anything that says fragrance on it is usually toxic because that is a generalized term that the FDA allows when there are multiple chemicals put together and they don’t have to list all of the individual chemicals. They just call it a fragrance but those are very toxic. They also cause major hormone disruption. So please don’t use Glade plugins, air fresheners, the little things that hang in your cars, or the candles with all the fragrances in them because it goes straight into the air into your bloodstream. These are also obesogens like I mentioned, where these are the ones that like to distribute into your fat cells and keep you fat. So you get that dreaded weight loss resistance and can’t get rid of the weight. So those have to go.
Try Organic
Switch to organic food. When you are eating anything that’s made conventionally you’re getting pesticides. These are genetically modified foods where the food has been genetically changed usually with a pesticide or some form of chemical so insects are less likely to eat them. However, that not only kills the insects, but that kills us too. So please try to eat organic as much as possible. Try to get clean meats where they’re raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. Cows should be grazing on the grass and should be grass-fed, chickens should be free-range, and fish should be wild-caught, not farm-raised. Also, drink lots of clean water. However, I want you to drink out of glass or stainless steel. Please try to avoid plastic water bottles as much as you can. Plastic continually leeches those chemicals into the water. Even if you don’t let your water bottle heat up it probably has been sitting in a warehouse for 6-12 months with who knows what temperature. That entire time most plastics are leaching into that water before you drink it. So it’s super important to keep your plastic water drinking to a minimum. Only use plastic water bottles when you absolutely have to. Also, filter your water as much as possible.
Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables
Eat the rainbow every day. Actually, the colors of your fruits and vegetables are associated with different phytochemicals. Phytonutrients that are antioxidants, go around and clean house. They get rid of all the dead cellular debris, broken DNA, and all the damaged cells that help combat these environmental toxicants. So eating the rainbow is super important. When is the last time you ate a purple vegetable? I would love to know because we have to get those colors in.
Detoxification
Then we need to think about how our body detoxifies. Our body detoxifies a few different ways. The biggest, most common way we know of is through pooping. When you get rid of that stool, you are getting rid of toxins from your body. Whatever your body’s trying to get rid of, it will be removed through your skin through sweating, through your bowels, and through your urine. So get pooping every day. If that’s an issue for you, then you need to come see me or get that taken care of. You know, sometimes we just need some more magnesium, MCT oil, or fiber in our diet. There are all kinds of reasons that you might need help getting your bowels moving every single day.
Sweating is a great way to eliminate your toxins. Your body naturally sweating is a detox mechanism. Try to figure out a way to get sweating and get your heart rate up 30 minutes every day. It’s really good for your detoxification processes. For some people, if getting your heart rate up to the point of sweating is too difficult then try something like a dry heat sauna or an infrared sauna. These will also help detoxify at the cellular level.
Dry brushing is a really awesome technique. You can get a natural dry brush in most places and that gets your lymph flowing. Your lymphatic system actually follows your cardiovascular system. So wherever you have blood vessels, you have lymph vessels. Those lymph vessels and lymph nodes are taking the waste products that your blood is done using and transporting it to try to get rid of it. That’s why sometimes you’ll get a swollen lymph node if you’re sick because they’re like a trash can. They’re trying to get rid of that virus or bacteria, but it also does that with toxins. You want your lymphatics moving and it doesn’t have a pump the way our cardiovascular system does. Our blood vessels squeeze and they pump especially with our muscles. Our lymphatics don’t have those pumps. They completely rely on us physically moving our bodies to get our lymph moving. So dry brushing is a great technique to help move that lymphatic stuff to get some better drainage. You can also exercise regularly, get a massage, or go get osteopathic manipulation. These will all help your lymphatics move those toxicants out.
Off-Gassing
Off-gassing is another thing I think of. Sometimes I have to get my clothes dry cleaned, which I don’t love, but you want all those chemicals that they used to off-gas and not bring them into your house. So I literally leave my dry cleaning clothes in the garage for about two weeks before I bring them into the house. I want those chemicals to off-gas and not be anywhere near me. I don’t want to breathe all of them in. And like I mentioned, that’s really common with new furniture, renovations, flooring, and carpets. Open those windows to get that off-gassing out of your home.
What Are You Cooking With?
If you’re cooking with nonstick pots and pans, those chemicals, especially Teflon, get absorbed into our food every time we cook. I would try to swap those out with stainless steel, lead-free ceramic, or anything that doesn’t have Teflon coating because that stuff is really toxic.
That’s A Wrap
Try to do a couple of these things and every month incorporate another one. Once you run out of a product, try a new one. Find a more clean product to try and replace your old product. You don’t have to go through and throw away all of your makeup or personal care products today unless that’s the kind of person you are. I say once you’re just about out of a product, look for cleaner products. The best place to do so is by going to The Environmental Working Group. They have lists you can look at to see how toxic your product is and find some better solutions and alternatives.
I hope this was helpful. This is a huge reason why we are struggling with our health. We want to blow it off because this is just life nowadays and how are you going to get around it. But there are ways to decrease your toxin exposure on a regular basis. Try incorporating some of these things that we talked about. This alone might be the difference between heavy periods, PMS, painful periods and nice, not so painful, balanced periods. It really is that impactful on your hormones and your health.